17549--Sound of Thunder

You didn't just hear that...you felt it.

It rumbled, resonating through your flesh, your bones and everything around you.

Whether through lore or science, many people have attributed the effect of lightning's passage to many different supernatural actors.  Accordingly, the kinetic disturbance has also picked up a host of names.  Among the more enduring is "Donar" or "Thor".  Thanks to the modern mythology of comic books and the films they have inspired, the force of nature embodied as a ferocious warrior has enjoyed a popularity as a modern superhero that he hasn't seen since before the changing of the religious guard started cutting down oak trees and nailing up wood crucifixes.


Thor was created from a union of Odin's power with that of Mother Earth, resulting in one of the most powerful beings ever known to Asgard.  One curious development at the core of Thor's comic book characterization, though, has the guardian of Earth and Asgard bound by his father to the immortal's legendary weapon.  To teach his son humility (and humanity, ironically), Odin created an enchantment that tied the power of the storm-who-walks-like-a-man-god to the hammer Mjolnir.  Whomever holds the hammer and is deemed by its enchantment to be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.  Usually, possession is acquainted with more malefic intentions, but I suppose we'll let that one slide for now.  As a father-figure, Allfather Odin is usually regarded as one geared more toward doing good than harm.  Still, y'know, gods can be capricious and their ways can seem quite harsh to mortal sensibilities.  Either way, the hammer was put in charge, a sophisticated leash for the power of Thor.

Now, one of the other great challenges some of you may remember being sent against Thor was the magical automaton called The Destroyer.  I've never liked that.  In my head, I've always tried to re-label it as The Annihilator.  I've never understood why they chose the name they did at Marvel.  The name of the hammer, star of Thor's show, is Mjolnir.  Mjolnir means "The Destroyer".  Bad enough that the robot's super-tough because it's made from the same metal (Uru) as the hammer, but they gave it the same name as the hammer.  That's got to get a little confusing in the heat of combat.

Oh, well, maybe they can work on it during their next retcon.  It can't be too far off.  What time is it?

16512--What's so Magical about Mistletoe?

Before you pluck off the berries and toss the whole thing away, ask yourself what you've been doing.  Have you been squandering the hidden potential of mistletoe on coercing kisses out of unsuspecting victims?  Didn't your sorcerous apprenticeship teach you that it was useful for so much more?  Well, that's what the druids said, anyway.  The Celts and the Norse, too.  Of course, it was sacred to them.  As a tea it was considered an antidote for poisons (despite the berries themselves being poisonous) and a cure for sterility and barrenness. So you see, kissing someone under mistletoe is actually a symbolic attempt at invoking its hidden qualities.

Just bear with me.  Knowing these sorts of things, or at least pondering your way through to them, can be just the sort of exercise your mind needs when you're writing a story or building the elements of a world.  It may apply to only a single system of magic or it may end up being the framework for a score of them.  It's your writing so that's for you to work out.  Allons-y!

In the French comic strip Asterix le Gaulois, the tribal wizard, Obelix, uses his golden serpe to collect mistletoe for potions that confer superhuman strength like Popeye’s spinach. Strength equals virility and from there it's a short hop to fertility. To the Anglo-Saxons and the Germans, mistletoe was a product of the oak and thus inherently fertile. In cultures across pre-Christian Europe, mistletoe was seen as a representation of divine male essence (and thus romance, fertility and vitality), possibly due to a resemblance between the berries and semen.

Botanically unique, mistletoe is not only a highly evolved flowering plant, but also parasitic (capable of using over 200 species of trees and shrubs as host). To the magician, this speaks to unusual properties, but curing barrenness and acting as an aphrodisiac? There’s no known chemical that has a specific, predictable aphrodisiac effect on humans. Sorry, gang, but human physiology is far too complicated and individually reactive for that. Alcohol, for example, isn’t an aphrodisiac. It merely lowers inhibitions, some of which may be sexual. Most drugs don’t stimulate arousal at all, rather they create fatigue and a sense of stimulation as that fades. Playing with brain chemicals does amazing things, but if mistletoe is lowering inhibitions they do seem to be the ones focused on kissing.

Among the Germans, decorating trees for religious effect goes back to pagan practices, the bringing of trees into the home for Winter solstice long-preceding Christianity. Teutonic religions borrowed heavily from the Celts, with whom trees were very popular, so the notion spread rather readily. In the 8^th century, St. Boniface dedicated the fir tree to Christ, supplanting Thor and Odin’s sacred oak. By the 13^th century, the mistletoe’s subtle powers carried it on to become the unexpected killer of the Asgardian god Baldur in the form of a projectile, either an arrow or a dart (in the Prose Eddas).  With Frigg, his mother and Odin's wife, weeping over him, her tears became the white berries as they fell upon the plant and restored her son to life.  Her vow that mistletoe would cause no further harm was extended to hold that those under its sway would, if enemies, set aside their weapons and embrace.  Those without enmity took it even further and...kissed.  After each encounter, a berry was plucked until all were gone.

An alternate version of Baldur's death, the Gesta Danorum version, casts the deadly weapon as a sword named Mistilteinn, the Old Norse for "mistletoe".

Magic arrows? Magic swords? Now we’re talking about some action. Mistilteinn makes its way into several Norse legends that way, but the plant itself never really fades completely from people’s minds. In later times, ol’ St. Nick was supposed to have had his first kiss with the future Mrs. under the mistletoe, so that probably has something to do with it all.

Magic responds to emotion and need. Apparently, collectively, we're even bigger fans of kissing than we are of magic swords.  Somewhere along the way, we remembered that Love is some pretty potent magic (that version of Baldur's death with the magic sword had him killed by his brother in a rivalry over Love).  That's cool in its own way.  Even moreso because it's giving me still more story ideas.  That's hot stuff.  That means it's writing time.

Allons-y!

16506--Tough Guys Do More

Today is a Tuesday, so it seemed fitting that I ruminate on tough guys. I deliberated waiting till Thursday and hammering this one out with Thor, but he’s a very popular fellow. Instead I settled on a less well-known tough guy to work with, but still worthy of getting his own day. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Tuesday was named for Tiw. The Greeks had Ares and the Norse had Tiw. Tiw was a Norse god of war, but he wasn't an ass about it like some. In fact, the unyielding nobility that has served as Tiw’s claim to fame only serves to bear him out as a tough guy.

You see, way back when in Asgard, the gods tried to live together in a state of mutual cooperativeness. To foster peace and harmony among them, these warrior gods had made a deal not to kill off each others’ children. Unfortunately, this later came to include the children of Odin’s adopted son Loki. Loki had proven himself to be troublesome enough over the years, but wow did he ever have some weird kids. I always thought Hera should’ve given up on popping out little ones, but Loki definitely should’ve taken a vow of abstinence. His offspring weren’t just bizarre, they were prophesied to be key players in Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods. No pressure.

Loki’s daughter, Hela, was cold and grim and stood nine feet tall. They put her in as top dog of Nifelheim. Cold and gloomy, meet cold and gloomy. This place had everything it needed to give Hades a run. Another kid was the Midgard serpent, encircling all of Earth and lying in wait for the end of things. Last was Fenris, a gargantuan wolf who would bite the moon in half during the final clash between good and evil.

Fenris was of such staggering strength that his power worried the other Asgardians, but that pesky pact they’d made forced them to get creative. So they attempted to chain mighty Fenris…many times. Boisterous competitions being what they were in Asgard, Fenris showing off his power to shatter every chain and binding brought to test him became a great game, albeit a frustrating one for those who would have the massive wolf under control.

It was time to get serious. That meant putting the dwarves to work on the problem. Brokk and Eitri had become known as masters of creating wondrous things (these were the guys who’d made Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and Odin’s favorite magical items, after all), so it’s amazing that they hadn’t consulted them sooner. Thinking out of the box, the clever dwarves created a fine golden cord worthy of Wonder Woman herself. This creation was made of immaterial things that could not be broken, whispers and ideas whose essences dwarf magic was able to combine into what they hoped would be a single unbreakable object even Fenris couldn’t break.

The next gathering of the “Let’s Bone the Wolf” club had a different feel to it. Even though they tried to play it cool, let’s face it, a lot of gods are better at arrogance than they are at keeping a good poker face. No surprise then that Fenris got to feeling a little suspicious about the latest game of “Bet you a mead you can’t break this.” To put Fenris at ease, like a sucker, the closest thing he had to a friend agreed to let the wolf hold his hand in his mouth as collateral. Noble Tiw (thought I’d forgotten about him, huh?) calmly allowed Fenris’ teeth to take their hold. When the golden cord was fastened around Fenris’ neck and the free end anchored to a mountain, the test began. Together they all learned that those little dwarves were some kind of mad geniuses. Fenris could not break the cord and the gods wouldn’t release him, so Tiw lost his hand.

Now, did the one-handed war god complain and moan about his loss? Did he curse Fenris or the other Asgardians who allowed him to lose his hand without even an attempt at negotiation? No, he did not. Why not? Tough guy.

Tough guys do what needs doing.

Tough guys don’t make excuses even when failure occurs.

Tough guys persevere, taking the extra steps, going further than those who don’t know what it means to be a tough guy.

Tough guys don’t cry over physical pain. Women may have said, for a little while, that they liked men who cry, but I think they’ve largely gotten over that. What they came to realize was that they sort of liked “sensitive” men who could share their feelings. They seem to have largely tired of “sensitive” men, though. They cry too much. Plus, the communication that’s involved in sharing feelings is cumbersome. Men and women communicate differently. We say the same things differently from each other and we have different body languages. Also, men talk less. And, like it or not, there are different expectations for men than for women. Women can cry over physical pain without having it held against them. Men can “open up” about their feelings, but tough guys don’t do things by half-measures so don’t expect much. To a tough guy, “opening up” for a “good cry” doesn’t accomplish anything worthwhile. He doesn’t understand it so he isn’t likely to do it unless someone’s died or “Old Yeller” is playing.

There's more to the job than just having a Y chromosome.  If you want to be a tough guy, you've got a lot of work to do and none of it involves whining.  Guys who cry over physical pain better not have hit puberty yet because such an activity will interfere with being perceived as a man. It will certainly remove any perception of being a tough guy. John McLain didn’t cry as he limped along with glass in his foot and neither should any other tough guy. Whether it’s a bullet in the leg or cutting off his own arm, the tough guy remains composed. He is a role model and anything less is unacceptable.

Men, be warned: cry in front of your partner over physical pain and your status will be downgraded. You may even be replaced. No joke. Suck it up and walk it off.

If you want to be a tough guy, step up to your responsibilities. That may mean extra hours at work, extra jobs, doing more around the house…Whatever it takes, it’s going to mean doing more even when no one else understands it.

If you’re going to be a tough guy, you’ll see where you’re needed. You’ll look for opportunities and you’ll get things done.